


The Cat's Meow

by ptolemy



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, implications of sexual activity, severely ic haru behaviour, severely ooc cat behaviour, the spirit of a best friend with a water addiction, two adults in a loving committed and cohabitual relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 13:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7936516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ptolemy/pseuds/ptolemy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a joke, at first: "It looks like Haru, doesn't it?"<br/>They hadn't meant to bring the cat home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cat's Meow

It was a joke, at first. The cat had joined their regular group of strays who gathered around their front steps for feeding in the morning. One look at it, black fur and bright blue eyes staring, and Rin and Makoto had looked at each other and said in unison, “It looks like Haru, doesn’t it?” They had laughed, given the cat a little extra food and scritches behind the ears, and then left.

The next day, the Haru-cat returned, rubbing up against Makoto’s leg and staring pointedly at him without making a sound. “He likes you best, Makoto,” Rin teased as he played with a small, striped cat. “That’s very Haru.”

The day after that, the Haru-cat chased away the striped cat and stuck his head into Rin’s hand with a faint tremor of a purr. “He wants your attention most, Rin,” Makoto commented mildly, smiling. “That’s also very Haru.”

On the third day, the Haru-cat followed them home. They had yet to hear him meow at all, and he moved in utter silence. They didn’t even know he was there until Rin unlocked their front door and a bolt of black shot between their legs and into the house, driving an alarmed curse from Rin and a surprised stumble from Makoto. By the time they actually entered, the cat was already curled up on a pillow on their couch, looking for all the world as if they’d woken him from a long nap.

Rin and Makoto traded looks: Rin’s, flustered and annoyed, and Makoto’s, cautiously eager. They’d never taken a stray home before. Rin always insisted their shared time was too spare already between university classes and training, that the attention and responsibility an animal needed was more than they could give. But the moment Rin saw that look on Makoto’s face, eyebrows raised, lips curved, an unspoken _please?_ , he buckled. Makoto never even had to ask. He closed the door, and Makoto bustled about to put out food and some of the cat toys he kept around for the strays. 

“We can’t keep calling it Haru, though,” Rin said as he walked towards the kitchen, though his eyes were pulled back to the rather _smug_ look he thought he saw on the cat’s face as the cat resettled himself on the pillow. “That’s too weird.”

“We’ll call him something else when Haru comes over,” Makoto called back easily, waggling a string over Haru-cat’s head, much to his apparent disinterest.

So the name stuck. Haru was a pretty easy cat to live with, often disappearing for hours into dark crevices behind furniture to nap during the day and then wandering silently at night. He seemed fascinated by running sinks (“Haru,” Makoto reaffirmed with a nod), and he had a particular knack for finding Rin’s trophies, even on their own shelf, and a vested interest in their destruction. Even when the cat did something particularly vexing, Rin found it _was_ pretty satisfying to yell, “Ha _ru_ ,” at it, pleased to be able to scold at least _one_ of the Harus for misbehaving, but the flat, almost petulant look he received in return was nearly as irritating from a cat as it would have been from his namesake, and it contained exactly as much remorse, too.

But the name itself didn’t really get weird until some weeks later, when Rin had been running a shower for himself after coming home from a long day’s training. Makoto had slipped into the bathroom after him, pressing butterfly kisses to his neck and whispering a few promises that had Rin tripping out of his clothes hastily and helping Makoto out of his at the same time. Somewhere between breathless kisses against the wall and more than a few curses as Rin fumbled with the catch on Makoto’s pants, he thought he heard something almost like a coo of pleasure. He assumed he’d made it himself, used to making more than his fair share of surprising noises, especially when Makoto had a _hold_ of him like that, but—

The sound again. It was definitely not him, and it was definitely not human.

Makoto, who’d been leaving bruising hickies along Rin’s collarbone, looked up at him in alarm, and Rin shot him a scowl as he said, “Not me.”

The sound came again, and now it was clear that it was carrying from the shower itself, left running while Rin was distracted. Through the steam-covered glass of the shower wall, they saw a black smudge that turned to look at them, its pink-smudgy mouth open a moment later with another long _maow_. 

They had never heard Haru-cat make a sound louder than a purr, and the severity of his voice was alarming, enhanced by the burning blue eyes _watching_ them through the glass; he almost seemed to be yelling at them to _leave_. He paced around in a circle, shook the water from his fur, and then returned to stand under the spray, making a long string of low yowls that sounded far too much like _pleasure_ for Rin’s comfort.

“H-Haru,” Makoto said, straightening up, but his voice trailed off unsteadily, the joke sitting stale under the circumstances. “Haru,” Makoto tried again weakly, “g-get out of here. Go on.”

“Cat,” Rin said with a warning glare, and met with a small, irritable _mow_ in return. “Get. Out.”

With another sound rather like a long, drawn out complaint, the dark smudge of Haru-cat emerged from the shower, shaking water from his fur directly onto their legs as he went, and sauntered out of the bathroom, tail whipping the air on his way out. Makoto, whose face was burning bright red, turned back to Rin with a half-shrug. “Um.”

“His name is Fluffy,” Rin said with finality, falling back against the wall and folding his arms. “I’m not going to get cock-blocked by _any_ kind of Haru.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
>   
> 


End file.
